


Breakfast at Pemberley

by demoncandy



Category: Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
Genre: Best set-downs, Gen, Georgiana isn't shy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-21
Updated: 2020-04-21
Packaged: 2021-03-01 23:53:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 833
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23765656
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/demoncandy/pseuds/demoncandy
Summary: Miss Bennet met someone more deserving and Miss Darcy tells Mr. Bingley so.
Relationships: Jane Bennet/Original Male Character(s)
Comments: 6
Kudos: 109





	Breakfast at Pemberley

**Author's Note:**

> This was previously posted at "A Happy Assembly" in 2017(?) - I am reposting it here in the interest of reducing the tedium of the present lockdown. It was originally a scene from a much longer fic but as that fic has long since been stalled for lack of inspiration, it must stand alone for now. In this AU, Georgiana is much less timid; she regards Bingley as something of a brother but without the awe that overpowers her regard for her actual brother.
> 
> I had only my almost-final-version to hand and have checked it over for clarity, misspellings, and typos. It may, therefore, differ by a word here or there from AHA, and if I have missed anything, please let me know.

_The definition of set-down. (from the OED):_

_"An unexpected and humiliating rebuff. Also, a severe scolding."_

When Georgiana arrived at the breakfast table, her only company was Mr Bingley. She politely made no comment on his morose expression; it had been a common sight since December last. Greeting him quietly, she received as slight a reply as courtesy allowed and they both ate in silence. As she was finishing, a footman entered and placed the newly arrived newspapers from London on the table and offered a letter to Georgiana on a salver.

“Oh! A letter from Juliet!” she exclaimed in surprise. “I have not heard from her in nearly two months!” She eagerly tore open the missive from the friend she had known since she was in the nursery and with whom she maintained an irregular correspondence.

Mr Bingley gave a slight smile and returned to his gloomy thoughts before Georgiana startled him by dropping her letter onto the table and snatching up the papers.

She sorted through the pile impatiently until she found the one she wanted and turned it to the _Announcements_ section and there it was, the notice of Juliet’s eldest brother to a young lady from Hertfordshire. “Mr Bingley,” she said excitedly, “were not the Bennets of Longbourn in Hertfordshire your neighbours at Netherfield Park?”

“I… um… yes...” His brow creased in puzzlement as he stumbled over his words.

“Can you tell me about them? Juliet’s brother has just married a Miss Bennet, and Juliet writes to invite my brother and I to visit the family in Cheshire.”

Mr Bingley paled, a sinking feeling twisting his stomach. “Miss Bennet? There are, no, were five Miss Bennets. Very pretty girls, especially the eldest… Which Miss Bennet is married?” He barely knew what he said, his gaze fixed on the paper in Georgians’s hands as it were a venomous snake.

“The eldest, Miss Jane Bennet. Mr Bingley, are you well?” Georgiana half rose from her seat in some alarm as she saw his complexion go from pale to ashen. “Can I get you something? A glass of wine? You look very ill!”

Mr Bingley shook his head in a daze. “Just… just distressed. I – Miss Bennet was everything – she was an angel. Sweet, kind, caring… I am sure she will be a wonderful wife.”

Due to her youth and reticence, Georgiana had never been told explicitly of Mr Bingley’s attachment to Miss Bennet, and as he meant nothing to her beyond being a friend to her brother, she had little interest in his affairs. However, she was an intelligent young lady and it took her almost no time at all to put together the clues. “Mr Bingley, was the former Miss Bennet the young lady you have been heartbroken over?” she finally inquired in a diffident tone.

He scarcely seemed to hear her and was long in answering. Only then did it pour out in a torrent of tangled words. How he had met Miss Bennet, how he had admired her and fallen in love with her, only to be assured by his sisters and Darcy of her indifference to him. He did not stop there – he kept going, with the plans he had kept making (and discarding) to return to Netherfield and how he had hoped.

Georgiana reseated herself and listened attentively. Initially, his obvious pain had drawn her sympathy but as his story progressed and he spoke of his reasons – excuses – for not returning to Netherfield, the sympathy was displaced by exasperation. “Mr Bingley, you are being ridiculous! It is August and you have not seen the former Miss Bennet for above _eight months_. More, you are not a child, you are a man of independent means who is beholden to nobody, who, if he felt so very deeply, could have returned to the house that _he_ was leasing at any time during those eight months! Moreover, can you imagine any young lady, abandoned without a word for so many months, would continue to look at you with favour, even if she had had some regard for you? Such a lack of resolve is a most unattractive thing to any lady of sense!” Her tone was indignantly censorious; on the basis that a dear friend’s brother (known to be a sensible and intelligent man) had married her, Georgiana was disposed to think well of Miss Bennet and Mr Bingley’s lamentations provoked her. She felt quite offended on the behalf of Miss Bennet, who must surely have suffered derision from her local society.

For his part, Mr Bingley looked quite shocked at her words and could not speak a word in his own defence.

“It is high time you ceased moping about; your disappointment is entirely self-inflicted and your behaviour quite childish.” With a sniff and a look of disdain that would have done credit to her aunt Catherine, Georgiana collected her letter and swept out of the room, leaving Mr Bingley to the care of his newly arrived sisters.


End file.
